The inverse compton effect in the electrons of the Van Allen radiation belt

A first estimate of the energy that reaches the Earth's surface and is produced by the inverse Compton effect between the electrons in the Van Allen belt and the solar flux was made. Since in the belt there are electrons with energies between 0.5 and 7 MeV, it was possible to use the Klein-Nishina formula in an approximate form and estimate the energy that is Compton scattered by all the electrons in the Van Allen belt by using Vette, Lucero and Bright's model. The result was compared (a) with the measurements of the continuum in the regions of soft X-rays, and (b) with the energy that is produced by the trapped electrons through the synchrotron mechanism.This paper was presented at the COSPAR meeting held in leningrad on May 20–29, 1970.     

Earthquake dynamics on circular faults: a review 1970–2015

We review the development of earthquake dynamics taken from the point of view of the origin of seismic radiation instead of the detailed study of rupture propagation on complex surfaces. Many features of seismic radiation can be explained by simple models that serve as elementary canonical problems. Some of these properties are very well known like the fact that at low frequencies, the seismic spectrum is proportional to the seismic moment. At high frequencies, on the other hand, radiation is generated by the motion of the rupture front, in particular stopping phases and geometrical obstacles (barriers). A rupture front moving at constant speed does not produce far-field radiation. For many practical applications, for determining source size and stress drop, for example, it is not necessary to determine geometrical details of the rupture. For such cases, a simple circular crack model is quite sufficient. An improvement on this method is to do dynamic inversion on simple, elliptical-shaped sources and letting the rupture start arbitrarily from a point on the fault. This problem can be solved nowadays with finite differences and a variety of inversion techniques.     

An aromatase inhibitor and tamoxifen decrease plasma levels of o,p'-DDT and its metabolites in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

The objective of this study was to determine if tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor (4-hydroxyandrostenedione; 4-OHA) affected plasma concentrations of o,p' -DDT and its metabolites, o,p'-DDD and o,p'-DDE, in mature tilapia. Male and female tilapia were injected 6 times intraperitoneally with o,p'-DDT (40 mg/kg) alone or in combination with 4-OHA (2 mg/kg) over a 12 day period. An additional group of male fish was injected with tamoxifen (5 mg/kg) plus o,p'-DDT. At the end of the treatment period, plasma samples were extracted and analyzed by GC/ECD. Females injected only with o,p'-DDT had significantly higher levels of o,p'-DDT compared with males. Interestingly, females and males treated concomitantly with o,p'-DDT and 4-OHA or tamoxifen had significantly lower concentrations of plasma o,p'-DDT (about 50%) compared with fish treated with only o,p'-DDT. These initial results suggest that an interaction between endocrine-active compounds occurs in vivo in tilapia and may involve alterations in metabolism of o,p'-DDT.     

Characteristics of chaotic pulse trains generated by lightning flashes

Pulse trains of irregular pulse characteristics and erratic amplitudes are observed in lightning flashes. These are termed “chaotic pulse trains” in this study. The average width of the individual pulses of these pulse trains is in the range of a few microseconds, with the lower limit of individual measurements extending into the sub-microsecond region. The typical pulse separation lies in the range of 2–. The pulse duration shows a consistent distribution with the most probable value at 400–. Chaotic pulse trains occur most often immediately prior to subsequent strokes. However, they occur also a few milliseconds to several tens of milliseconds prior to return strokes and sometimes do not precede return strokes at all. Twenty-six percent of the total subsequent strokes recorded in this study were preceded by chaotic pulse trains. A few of these pulse trains have occurred in a sequence of several tens of millisecond intervals in between return strokes. We have also found them to occur within very intense cloud flashes. These chaotic pulse trains have features that are different from those of other known pulse trains reported in the lightning literature. Hence, they may be caused by a physical process that has not yet been identified.     

Interactive discovery of sequential patterns in time series of wind data

Wind speed and direction vary over space and time due to the interactions between different pressures and temperature gradients within the atmospheric layers. Near the earth’s surface, these interactions are modulated by topography and artificial structures. Hence, characterizing wind behaviour over large areas and long periods is a complex but essential task for various energy-related applications. In this study, we present a novel approach to discover wind patterns by integrating sequential pattern mining and interactive visualization techniques. The approach relies on the use of the Linear time Closed pattern Miner sequence algorithm in conjunction with a time sliding window that allows the discovery of all sequential patterns present in the data. These patterns are then visualized using integrated 2D and 3D coordinated multiple views and visually explored to gain insight into the characteristics of the wind from a spatial, temporal and attribute (type of wind pattern) point of view. This proposed approach is used to analyse 10 years of hourly wind speed and direction data for 29 weather stations in the Netherlands. The results show that there are 15 main sequential patterns in the data. The spatial task shows that weather stations located in the same region do not necessarily experience similar wind pattern. For within the selected time interval, similar wind patterns can be observed in different stations and in the same station at different times of occurrence. The attribute task discovered that the repetitive occurrences of chosen pattern indicate as regular wind behaviour at different weather stations that persisted continuously over time. The results of these tasks show that the proposed interactive discovery facilitates the understanding of wind dynamics in space and time.     

内蒙古鄂尔多斯高原古冰缘遗迹科学考察研究进展

冰缘遗迹(特别是冷生楔形构造及融冻褶皱)是重建古气候及第四纪晚期多年冻土环境的重要证据.内蒙古鄂尔多斯高原是我国北方地区冰缘现象最为发育的地区之一.为准确了解鄂尔多斯高原冰缘遗迹类型及其分布特征、区域冻土演化历史等,中国科学院西北生态环境资源研究院和荷兰自由大学共同组成科研小组,于2018年5—6月组织了"鄂尔多斯高原...     

Location of Moderate-Sized Earthquakes Recorded by the NARS�CBaja Array in the Gulf of California Region Between 2002 and 2006

We relocated the hypocentral coordinates of small to moderate-sized earthquakes reported by the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) between April 2002 and August 2006 in the Gulf of California region and recorded by the broadband stations of the network of autonomously recording seismographs (NARS?CBaja array). The NARS?CBaja array consists of 19 stations installed in the Baja California peninsula, Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico. The events reported by the preliminary determinations of epicenters (PDE) catalog within the period of interest have moment magnitudes (M _w) ranging between 1.1 and 6.7. We estimated the hypocentral location of these events using P and S wave arrivals recorded by the regional broadband stations of the NARS?CBaja and the RESBAN (Red Sismológica de Banda Ancha) arrays and using a standard location procedure with the HYPOCENTER code (Lienert and Havskov in Seism Res Lett 66:26?C36, 1995) as a preliminary step. To refine the location of the initial hypocenters, we used the shrinking box source-specific station term method of Lin and Shearer (J Geophys Res 110, B04304, 2005). We found that most of the seismicity is distributed in the NW?CSE direction along the axis of the Gulf of California, following a linear trend that, from north to south, steps southward near the main basins (Wagner, Delfin, Guaymas, Carmen, Farallon, Pescadero and Alarcon) and spreading centers. We compared the epicentral locations reported in the PDE with the locations obtained using regional arrival times, and we found that earthquakes with magnitudes in the range 3.2?C5.0?mb differ on the average by as much as 43?km. For the M _w magnitude range between 5 and 6.7 the discrepancy is less, differing on the average by about 25?km. We found that the relocated epicenters correlate well with the main bathymetric features of the Gulf.